Author: smartpeopleiknow

August, 2021 pandemic highlights and ramblings (a newsletter, in blog form)

I hope you are enjoying your summer and staying safe and well. Summer is the best time of the pandemic — it’s sad I can say that, but this is our second pandemic summer —  so enjoy it as best as you can. If you need something to read as you soak up the sun and sip a cold one, here’s my latest blog newsletter for you.

Pandemic: it’s a weird time in the pandemic: on one hand, most people in places like Canada are getting vaccinated. Meanwhile, in other parts of the world, the Delta variant is causing death and devastation.  I once thought the pandemic would be receding, now I am not so sure. We have signs of normality like Via Rail bringing back Montreal-Halifax service. But there is also talk about the fourth wave. People are patronizing restaurants and  people are trying to avoid going to gyms. Places like Israel are struggling after early success. And while restaurants are open, restaurants are having a hard time staying staffed. (I can see that personally: my son works at Stock TC and he tells me they are struggling to hire and keep people.)

As for me, I am finally looking forward to doing some travelling to Halifax and Montreal in the upcoming months. I am going to be going to the east coast to accompany my son as he goes to university there. Then I am going to take advantage of my empty nest status to go to Montreal and partake in that great city and their wonderful views and food. Can’t wait!

It’s weird trying to arrange the trips. So much I used to do with certainty I do with great uncertainty now.

In non-travelling news, I’ve been going to some restaurants in Toronto and eating on their patios. Some patios are really great, others not so much. I love certain restaurants, but sitting on a busy street while cars and bikes whiz by is less than relaxing. Happy to patronize these restaurants, and looking forward to when we can all dine safely inside again.

Besides restaurants, other businesses are struggling to return to normal. My own employer is backing off having people return to the office, at least in NYC. The pandemic is going to have a big impact on companies in a number of ways. For example, there is much talk about preparing for the Great Resignation: 4 ways to be a better boss during the Great Resignation.

Olympics: During the recent Olympics, I expected that this sporting event could be cause of outbreaks. However, this piece argued that  Tokyo has shown the pandemic can be beaten Games health adviser says. That’s good.

Health: One thing that came out of the Olympics was a discussion of taking into account not just physical health but mental health. This lead to articles like this: Why We Need To Normalize Taking Sick Days For Our Mental Health. Speaking of physical health, I agree with this, that  COVID-19 has given us an opportunity to look at weight and what it means to be healthy. Our views of health change from generation to generation, but they should change dramatics because of the pandemic.

Denial: As with climate change, there are people who want to deny it is happening or that it is significant. That never ends well. For example: Oops. Canadian Province That Acted Like COVID Was Over Just Realized It Isn’t. (Yes, that’s Alberta). Some of those same people are using HIPAA as an excuse to not disclose their vaccination status. Those people need to read this: What Is HIPAA? Read This Before You Use HIPAA as an Excuse to Complain About Vaccine Requirements.

My last pandemic comment is this. You might be working from home for awhile, still. If some, here’s some good WFH furniture ideas from Simons. I may be checking it out soon. Regardless of buying new things, you may want to improve the look of your place. If so, check this out: How to curate (just about) anything.

Non pandemic stuff

Climate Change: there is so much news about climate change that I could easily fill the newsletter with references to that. Perhaps I will one day. One thing that stood out for me recently is this news: Hotter than the human body can handle: Pakistan city broils in world’s highest temperatures. The thought of parts of the world being unlivable is terrifying. My belief is that the way to turn it around is massive change on all fronts. So when I read things like this, I get concerned, to say the least: A Bill Gates Venture Aims To Spray Dust Into The Atmosphere To Block The Sun. What Could Go Wrong?. There is no silver bullet for climate change, and anyone who thinks so is wrong.  Climate change is overwhelming, and only overwhelming action on all fronts is going to stabilize and improve things.

Canada: It’s Federal election time in Canada. If you need info on that, go here.  If you need to see the latest polls, go here. I can’t predict what will happen: I expected the Liberals would win in Nova Scotia but the Conservatives ended up on top with a majority.

The US: for a time the President was on a roll in terms of success . His enemies and opponents like Lindsey Graham were struggling to stay relevant. But then he announced that the US was withdrawing from Afghanistan. Since then things have not been going well from him. I suspect over time it will work out for him and the American people. The occupation itself was never going to end well and it was best he declared this early in his presidency.

For some good insight on this, read this piece by Noah Smith: The Afghanistan occupation and the Japan occupation .

Still a thing: NFTs (Russell Simmons launches NFT collection to help pioneers of hip-hop), ransomware (Top 5 ransomware operators by income), and space exploration  (NASA looking for people to spend a year pretending they live on Mars so it can prepare to send astronauts to red planet). Newsletters also still a thing.

Fun: this was a fun thing to read: An Oral History of Adam Sandler Pickup Basketball Legend.

Finally, this is a great time to eat fresh fruit and vegetables. Not only are they enjoyable, it is also a great way to live healthier. So eat as many as you can while you can.

Stay safe. Stay well. Hang in there.

(Photo by Dan-Cristian Pădureț on Unsplash)

What I find interesting in tech, August 2021

Here’s a cornucopia of things I have found interesting in tech in the last month. As usual, lots of cloud, some Kubernetes, DevOps and software of course, as well as IOT. Grab a drink and read!

Cloud: 

Devops:

Software:

Kubernetes:

Security:

IOT:

Cool stuff:

General

(Photo by Sam Albury on Unsplash )

It’s Monday. You want to start drawing or painting as a hobby. These 24 links might help.

During the pandemic I tried to get back into drawing and painting. I was somewhat successful. What helped me was searching around the Internet and trying to find how to sites that were actually useful. There are so many out there that are NOT useful, I can’t begin to tell you how much time I wasted reviewing them all.

If you too are interesting in started drawing or painting, I’ve put together these links that I found,m useful and inspiring. I hope you find that too.

  1. Think you have no skills? Here’s how to make art without skill.
  2. Collaging for Beginners: if you want to try collage. Easy.
  3. How to make Your Own Pop Art Pet Portrait.  Also easy.
  4. Here’s Lynda Barry’s Illustrated Field Guide to Keeping a Visual Diary and Cultivating a Capacity for Creative Observation. Helpful.
  5. Here’s some simple watercolour techniques.
  6. A good intro on how to mix skin tones.
  7. Here’s some art therapy exercises.
  8. More art therapy exercises.
  9. You may want to know how to turn your trash into art.
  10. A good guide on how to develop a routine to make art.
  11. Here’s more advice on routine.
  12. If you are a beginner, here’s how to buy supplies.
  13. A good guide on how to paint glass reflections.
  14. And here’s how to make art people care about .
  15. A guide to make figure painting .
  16. A good intro on how to make rubber stamps .
  17. A good way to learn to paint is to learn to paint in monochrome .
  18. Here’s a guide on how to start drawing .
  19. More on how to start drawling.
  20. A step by step guide on drawing .
  21. How to draw a self portraint .
  22. I love this: a great piece on how to draw a water color in less than 3 minutes .
  23. How to draw a Renaissance portrait.
  24. Here’s how to paint like Monet (um, ok). Ok, not so beginnerish either but interesting.

Good luck!

(Photo by Kelli Tungay on Unsplash )

On restaurants loved and lost: Florent (and Odeon)

Here are a number of pieces on two great downtown Manhattan restaurants: Florent and Odeon. Florent has been closed for a number of years. But Odeon lives on, happily. What I love about both restaurants is how the embodied that era and how they both set a stage. You can see that in the pieces below about them. Florent in particular was a radical place that was like no other, right down to their menus and promotional material (like the one above). When they both opened the lower part of Manhattan had nothing like them. There was no gentrification down there like there is now. They were an oasis of good food, good design, and good times. To really get a sense of that, read Restaurant Florent Takes Its Final Bows – The New York Times. For more on the design ideas around Florent, see: Restaurant Florent | Restaurant Design in New York, NY — Memo Productions A short history of the space Florent occupied is written about here: What remains of a Gansevoort Street restaurant | Ephemeral New York Lastly, here is it’s Wikipedia write-up: Florent (restaurant). It’s a good source of other links on the place. Before I forget, this is a fun piece on The Odeon: A Retro Haven That Defined New York 1980s Nightlife | Vanity Fair. Also worth reading. Now go and eat at The Odeon.  

How to clean your house (and other things) if you’re depressed (or down in general)


I really found this article worthwhile: How to Clean Your House When You’re Depressed

It’s worthwhile reading even if you are not depressed. There can be times when it is too hard to clean your place. Unfortunately, a messy place may lead to more sadness and stress. Applying the lessons in that article can help alleviate that.

Now your house may not be messy, but you may be suffering from being down and not able to do other chores. Again, try and apply the lessons in that article. It may help you make progress, and clear signs of progress can often help.

Good luck. Go easy on yourself.

Consolations from the classics: Seneca and Suetonius

First up, Seneca. Here’s a good piece that summarizes some of the consolation letters he wrote to people close to him. Though they were written centuries ago, they are timeless and worth reading.

Second, Suetonius. Here’s a good piece on why you want to read him:  The Consolations of History. Essentially,  good histories like those of Suetonius give you  perspective that help you deal with your own time. Sometimes they do that by showing you things are fundamentally the same. Other times they do that by showing how much things have changed since that time. Either way you come away with a deeper understanding of your own time even as you learn about another time.

During the pandemic I have been noticing this frequently. People are looking back at the pandemic of 1918-19 and trying to draw lessons from it. That’s a good thing, I think. We can all gain perspective by looking to the past, which is never really past.

 

Old parts of Toronto: the 80s

To close off Toronto week here on the blog, here’s two pieces on what it was like to grow up in Toronto in the 1980s. First,  Toronto Life has 15 signs you grew up in Toronto in the 1980s. Not to be outdone, blogTO doubles that and shares 30 signs you grew up in Toronto in the 1980s 🙂

(Image from the Toronto Life piece. I loved going to Toby’s when I was in Toronto in the 80s. They were everywhere and they had good burgs. )

Enjoyable parts of Toronto: kayaking


Ok, I guess it is Toronto week on the old blog. Since it’s summer, here’s a good piece on where you can kayak in Toronto: Guide To Kayaking Toronto: Where To Paddle And When To Go. It sounds like fun, and a perfect activity for the summer months.

Don’t know how to kayak, you say? No worries, I have you covered. Read this: How to Finally Start Kayaking (and Why I’m Glad I Did)

(Photo by Pete Nowicki on Unsplash)

Weird parts of Toronto: transformer houses

No, they do not transform into robots. Instead:

These are Toronto’s residential substations, fake houses built by Toronto Hydro to conceal what’s inside: a transformer that converts raw, high voltage electricity to a voltage low enough to distribute throughout the city.

I have seen a number of them over the years, including this one, which is not far from me: Fake Toronto castle hides electrifying secret in plain sight

They are rather cool, I think. And the fact they blend into the neighborhoods is a huge plus.

For more on them, including the one shown above, see this: Toronto Hydro’s not-so-hidden residential substations.

 

Great parts of Toronto: Baldwin Street

Recently there was much discussion around this famous bakery in Toronto: Yung Sing. Many people I know have fond memories of going there and eating their famous pastry. And not just people I know, as this shows: Why Chinese bakery Yung Sing is one of the most fondly remembered in Toronto

That got me reminiscing about the street that Yung Sing is on. Baldwin Street has many famous places that incorporate Toronto history. You can see one example of that  in this piece: Yiddish sign survives threat to last vestige of Jewish enclave on Baldwin | The Star. 

And John’s and Yung Sing are just a few of the great places on Baldwin. You can read about more of them here: Toronto patios: Baldwin St. | The Star. 

That’s an older piece, but there’s still some of those places. And there are other places that are new and great, like Omai.

I miss Baldwin Street. I used to go often before the pandemic. It’s easy to get to from Spadina Avenue and it’s just up from the AGO, making it a perfect destination. I need to go back soon.

If you want to learn more about the street, read this: Baldwin Village – Wikipedia

(Image linked to in the story on the Yiddish sign).

On prisons and prisoners and how things can be improved

Here are three pieces on prison and incarceration that I thought were worth reading:

  1. Here’s some technology to help identify discrepancies in prison sentencing based on race.
  2. Here’s how California jails take a kinder and better approach.
  3. Here’s how artists teamed with prisoners to transform their prison.

(Image linked to in the third piece)

On progress: may you live in average times that are getting better in many ways


Matthew Yglesias wrote this piece here and it did not go over too well: The case against crisis-mongering. I mainly agree with him, that our world problems, dire as they are, aren’t as exceptional as we may think. Or as Dan G put it on twitter:

What Dan states is my worldview as well. There are still many bad things in the world, but there is progress and things are getting better.  We have overcome problems in the past and we have the ability to fix things in the future. Plus the past was terrible in many ways and so much worse than now (and our times will look terrible to people in the future).

If you disagree with this, I strongly recommend two books:

  1. Factfulness
  2. Progress: Ten Reasons to Look Forward to the Future

They make the case stronger than I can for how the world is getting better and how we should be optimistic despite our difficulties.

People will say: what about global warming? The pandemic? Nuclear weapons? All I can say is read Matt’s piece and then read those books. I think that will help alot.

(Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash )

 

 

 

On the pleasures of darker tinted rosé (with a bonus recipe :))

I was surprised to read this and discover that many fans of rosé prefer the lighter coloured version: A Rosé by Any Other Color – The New York Times.

I like lighter coloured rosés, but I find the darker ones have more substance and are more interesting. If you need convincing, I recommend you read that. Heck, read it regardless: it’s a good piece.

After you do that, I recommend  you head out to your local wine shop and pick up a bottle or two. Maybe your favorite pale pink number combined with something darker. And if you do, why not pick up the ingredients to make a nice niçoise salad to go with it. I think they may be a perfect meal combo. If you want a minimal version of niçoise salad, I recommend this 5 ingredient version from Cup of Jo. Purists may disagree, but that is a fine dinner salad whatever you call it.

(Photo by Dennis Vinther on Unsplash )

 

More writing advice you may find useful


Here a list of 5 or more things to help you become a better writer and (self)publish your book. Let me know if you find any of it useful.

  1. Here’s good advice on the non daily writing practice
  2. This is good to read if you aren’t Steven King: On printing a small number of books
  3. Some useful writing tech: Calmly writer. It’s a good tool to help you write in a focused way.
  4. If you want to write non-fiction, here are some tips.
  5. If you want to publish your own book, read this.
  6. Here’s Maeve Binchy’s advice for writers.
  7. And here’s Austin Kleon’s advice for writers.
  8. If you want to write alot, here’s how to write 40 books like Graham Greene.
  9. Finally, this piece on how someone made 40K on their book. It’s worth a read if financial considerations are important to you.

(Photo by hannah grace on Unsplash …good advice as well.)

What I find interesting regarding China, 2021 edition


Here’s some pieces worth reading on China regarding to censorship, spying, and China’s approach to the world:

  1. Christopher Robin is banned in China for a very interesting reason.
  2. Here’s more on Xi Jinping.
    Not that China is unique in that regard, but here’s a piece on China making people install spyware on their phones when visiting.
  3. Here’s something written on China and the Uyghur population.
  4. Along with spying, there is also the issue of censorship in China. Here’s a piece on that.
  5. Noah Smith writes well on China. Here’s something he wrote on on China’s popularity (his assessment is that China is not a popular country in the world).
  6. Finally am not sure I agree with this, but this is worth a read: on how Chinese people think differently

(Photo by zhang kaiyv on Unsplash of Beijing)

It’s Monday. Midsummer in the pandemic, WFH. You don’t want to do anything? This can help

Let’s face it: it can be hard at times to want to do anything, especially these days, the dog days of summer. You likely are getting tired from being at home all the time. The thought that the pandemic shows no sign of dying off doesn’t help. It’s also hot, and that can sap your morale too. What can you do?

Well, two things. First off, read this: How to Get Things Done When You Don’t Want to Do Anything – The New York Times. There’s some thoughtful advice on how to get enough motivation to do something. Don’t expect things to change overnight, but you can learn from it and get started.

If you are still struggling, maybe you need a better set up at home. If so, read this: 5 Habits of People Who Are Especially Productive Working from Home

Finally, maybe you need to create a short list of easy things to do to gain some momentum. I wrote about how you can do that, here.

We all fall into the doldrums from time to time. The quicksand of life, so to speak. Just stay positive and keep moving however slowly and you’ll get unstuck sooner than you think.

P.S. Finally grab one thing you love to do and do it. Don’t worry about being productive. Just focus on doing something.

(Photo by Christian Lambert on Unsplash)

A brief post on the Church

In my case, the Church is the Catholic Church, which I have been estranged from since my teenage years. There are a great many good Catholics that I know, doing great acts of charity and service, such as paying off medical debt. And when I read pieces like this one, I think: yes, Catholicism can be a force for good.

But then there are the many terrible actions by the church and those within it that remind me of why my estrangement still exists. Like how Catholics who promised residential school survivors $25M instead spent $300M on a new church. or the political actions of Bishops in the United States. Or finally, laicized cardinal Theodore McCarrick.

McCarrick is being charged with a fraction of the things he got away with for a very long time. Things everyone knew about. And just so you know, McCarrick is not the end of it. If you can bare it, here’s more about it.

Finally here’s an editorial in a Catholic Church publication talking about just how messed up the church is.

That’s all I have to say for now.

P.S. April 4, 2025: The New York Times has McCarrick’s obituary here. The Times seems to struggle, in their obit, to deal with the two sides of McCarrick, the good and the bad. But the bad parts prevent me from appreciating any of the good parts. No RIP for him.

(Image: Damon Winter/The New York Times)

What I found worthwhile reading regarding indigenous people in Canada, summer 2021


I am always trying to find ways to better understand the indigenous people of Canada and as a result I try and keep the better things I come across that help me with that understanding. I tend to be haphazard in how I research things: that shows in the almost randomness in what I have collected below. I think these links are worth reading, though.

On Residential schools: Recently there has been a strong focus on Canada’s Residential school system. Some people wrote about how people didn’t know this was happening back then. However this piece gives some important historical context as to what people knew at the time. As well, this piece gives more context as to how TB affected Aboriginal people.

Alot of what has been driving the focus has been the use of technology to find unmarked graves. Here are two good pieces on that ground radar technology. This piece gives a good introduction to it and this piece provides much more detail on how it works. For example, I naively expected the images to be more like an X ray or an ultrasound. It’s not quite that straightforward. Instead the images look like this:

(Image via CBC site)

As the use of the technology spread to other schools, some believed we would find graves at every residential school. However despite a lot of effort, there is no evidence found of unmarked graves related to Shubenacadie Residential School. I suspect this examination of schools will go on for a long time, and we will find more graves, but it will take time and not always come up with clear results.

As for why this is suddenly going forward, this story gives some context on how the search for the missing graves is being funded. Better late than never from the Federal government, but the lateness is still bad.

Finally, this is shameful: How the Catholic Church raised nearly $300M for buildings since promising residential school survivors $25M in 2005 . More on that story here.

History: My knowledge of indigenous history is weak. However, I found this helpful: More history: on the Iroquois as well as this: Military history of the Mi’kmaq people.

I need to go to Indigo bookstore and read more books and get a better sense of indigenous and Canadian history. If you feel the same, here’s a good list of what they have. Libraries are also good to go to and check out these books.

Other items:

Finally, if you want to learn more about Indigenous people in Canada, I’ve seen some indigenous people say that link was worthwhile.

(Top image of Shubenacadie Residential School via Wikipedia. Bottom image is of Her Excellency the Right Honourable Mary May Simon, Governor General and Commander-in-Chief of Canada taken by Sgt Johanie Maheu, Rideau Hall © OSGG-BSGG, 2021)

Is math political? Does it need to be? A few thoughts

You would think so, if you read this: Sneering at Ontario’s anti-racist math curriculum reveals a straight line to what people value in The Star

What has the columnist angry was the removal of several passages of progressive political text that went with the update to the recent changes of the math curriculum. I can see why that removal would anger some people with progressive political values.

I can also imagine how many conservatives would have been angry if there was text like this removed from a new curriculum: “recognize the ways in which mathematics can be used as a tool to uncover, explore, analyse, and promote actions to address greater productivity and growth within our economy and to lead Canada to a strong future of wealth and opportunity”, or if the government removed anything to do with teachers creating “pro-capitalist and pro-business teaching and learning opportunities.” Any group that tries to explicitly frame a curriculum and then have that framing removed will be upset.

Mathematics itself is not political, but it is always taught within a political and historical context. For example, I have math texts that make it seem that the only worthwhile math came from European men, while I have others that show mathematics has roots all over the world. I have math textbooks that mention 0 women, while other texts show the role women have played in mathematics and delve into why women had a hard time making more of a contribution.

Whatever context you want to frame a curriculum, I think that emphasizing politics and history with regards to teaching mathematics will not achieve some of the goals that progressive thinkers hope it will achieve. I think the new changes in the curriculum with regards to things such as streaming will help achieve those goals, as I wrote here.

Additionally, I think there are other things that can be done outside the curriculum that could help students that are disadvantaged when it comes to education in math. I am thinking of the work done by organizations like BlackGirlsCode. We could use more organizations like that who can provide specialized programs not just to help kids who are struggling with math, but to uplift kids that excel in math. Organizations that can support the next Maryam Mirzakhani, wherever she is. The kids who are struggling with math need more help than what the schools can provide: the same is true for kids that excel in math.

(Photo by ThisisEngineering RAEng on Unsplash)

Three quick thoughts on the new minimalism vs maximalism debate

It looks like minimalism has had it’s time and now it’s time for maximalism to take over. At least that’s the sense I get, reading this:More Is More: The End of Minimalism | The Walrus

My thoughts are this:

  1. Home decor is fashion, as much as clothing is fashion. The fashion for a time has been minimalism. Minimalism not just in having less items in your homes. It’s has also been about the colour of people’s walls. Or the use of mid-century modern furniture with its clean lines. The fashion of minimalism has always been about paring back in all areas of home decor.
  2. Now that form of minimalism is slowly going out of fashion. Home decor may be fashion, and no it doesn’t change as frequently as fashion in clothing, but yes it still changes. And the direction it is going to change towards is maximalism.
  3. I suspect we will see more and more maximalism in the next few years. Especially so as we eventually exit the pandemic. Things will get more colourful. Bolder lines and styles. Bigger pieces. More of everything. (Just like what you see in the photo above.) That will continue to increase until it too goes out of fashion. It’s all a pendulum.

For more on maximalism, here’s some other pieces I wrote. I also wrote more on minimalism too. 🙂

(Image via vinterior.co …I love it)

On the rise and fall and unlikely rise of QR codes


I’ve been a fan of QR codes for a decade. Back then I wrote about how they could be used to tag everything from trees and medic alert bracelets to IOT devices. I thought the sky was the limit for them. I was wrong.

Until this year. As Clive Thompson writes here, the pandemic has been a game changer in causing the resurgence of QR codes. I am glad to see that.

I’d still like to see QR codes everywhere. It would be a way of connecting the virtual world to the real world. Cities could tag streets and neighborhood with QR codes to allow you to get a glimpse of context into where you are standing. If a new building is being built, put a QR code on a sign out front that links to a web site providing greater detail on it. As for historic buildings, why not put a QR code on them that links to their wikipedia page describing the historical significance. Anyway, lots of ways QR codes could enhance our understanding of the world.

Here’s hoping they are here to stay, providing us a way to better navigate our world.

(Photo by Rebecca Hausner on Unsplash )

How the list of five things gets you unstuck and going

Whenever I get stuck and feel unmotivated, I write up a list of five things to do. I recommend you do this too. The list can be trivial tasks that can be done in a minute. Nevermind, just write them down. Then do them. Then take a break and congratulate yourself! Only moments earlier you were not able to do anything and you  just did 5 things!

Here’s some things you can put on your list if you can’t think of anything:

  1. Take deep breaths
  2. Stretch
  3. Drink some water
  4. Have a snack
  5. Empty the garbage
  6. Tidy your desk
  7. Email a quick thank you/note of appreciation to someone
  8. Water your plants and see how they are doing
  9. Eat a piece of fruit
  10. Read something inspiration
  11. Write something inspirational for you to read tomorrow
  12. Delete unwanted emails
  13. Unsubscribe to unwanted emails
  14. Check your spam folder for important emails
  15. Declutter your desktop a bit / a lot
  16. Change into better clothes
  17. Wash your face
  18. Brush your teeth
  19. Sweep or clean an area of your home
  20. Plan to do something you enjoy

You can easily pull five things out of that list.

Once you get the five done, do five more. Maybe you now have the momentum to tackle something bigger? Great, then do that!

I find this technique good when my energy levels are low, or if my todo list seems daunting. Give it a try: you might find yourself getting more things done.

(Photo by ANIRUDH on Unsplash)

How is twitter holding up in 2021?


How is Twitter holding up in 2021? It depends on how you look at it. As a service, it is trying to innovate with new features, but as this piece argues, it is kinda stuck: Twitter Is Stuck With Itself, Too – The New York Times.

As a company, though, it is doing well. For example, it continues to be profitable: Twitter Continues Its Profit Streak, While Still Shedding Users – The New York Times. The shedding users is a concern.

And compared to other services like YouTube, it is doing ok, as this piece shows: YouTube Is Underwhelming – The New York Times. In fact:

Twitter, which is not so hot at money, pulls in roughly double the ad sales on average from each of its users compared with YouTube.

Perhaps it should be acknowledged that the early social media companies like Twitter and YouTube are mature now and their growth and innovation peaks are behind them. Maybe they will continue to be like Facebook: mimicking every new company in the hopes of draining off some of that enthusiasm.

At least Twitter as a company seems to be doing well. For 2021, that may be all they need to be.
(Photo by Edgar MORAN on Unsplash)

It’s Monday. You need a better way to use the pomodoro technique. Read this


There are two things I struggle with when it comes to the pomodoro technique and maybe you struggle with them too. First thing is the length of the pomodoro: 25 minutes is a loooong stretch for me somedays. Sometimes I may not even be able to do 5 minutes at a time. Second thing is that the timer is a distraction: I keep checking the time versus focusing what I am supposed to be doing.

If you also struggle with that, then read this: I Created The Best-Ever Pomodoro Timer, Just For You by Clive Thompson. Clive has the same problems I have and he writes about them there. Better still, he made a better pomodoro timer. Go check it out.

Your week will be more focused and productive because of it.

(Photo by Veri Ivanova on Unsplash)

If you are suffering from the Sunday Scarries (with some extra thoughts from me)


If you have those feelings of dread and anxiety at the thought of work tomorrow, then read this:What are the Sunday scaries and how can you banish them?

Lots of good advice in there on how to get rid of them.

Some other things to consider:

  • If you can, on the Friday before, try and leave something positive to work on or do for the upcoming Monday. Try and fill Monday (or at least Monday morning) with positive tasks and meetings.
  • Another thing you can do on that Friday is outline what you plan to accomplish the following week and then stay focussed on that as you ease into Monday. If you can focus on things you want to achieve over the week, it helps dilute the dip into cold water that Monday leaves you feeling.
  • Acknowledge that other people feel that way and make sure that on Monday you fill their day with positive thoughts and feelings. Doing that will pay you dividends as they will likely reciprocate that positivity. It’s a win-win for all, and your Mondays will take on a more positive vibe, which should help lessen the Sunday scarries.

(Photo by Alexandra Gorn on Unsplash )

My cooking interests for Summer, 2021


Whew, it’s been awhile since I wrote about my cooking interests, and in the meantime the list has been building up with all sorts of delicious recipes. As well, I’ve found interesting essays and articles on food generally. Here they are: dig in!

Recipes: I have found so many good recipes I am going to separate them out just to make some sense of them.

Group Recipes: First off, here are some links to recipe lists that are rather good. Ottolenghi has some quick 15 minute lunch recipes that look good. Table for One is full of great solo recipes. Bon Appetit has compiled a list of their readers’ 23 Favorite recipes… some good ones there. A friend pointed out this collection of lovely recipes from Nigel Slater. Well worth a look. I have been craving meatballs lately. If you have too, Chatelaine can help you out there. The site Cup of Jo has a great list of Quick dinners. I like the recipes there a lot. If you feel like a salad, Bon Appetit has some salad ideas for you. Maybe you want soup? Food52 has 16 soup recipes to enjoy. Maybe  you are too tired to cook at all. If so, check out 14 No-Cook recipes for hot Days or lazy nights. Finally here is an insane list from Bon Appetit: 76 of Our Best Steak Recipes from Rib Eye to Skirt Steak Fajitas to Skewers. Fire up the grill.

Italianish Recipes: I always love a good carbonara recipe. To go with that, from SaltFatAcidHeat, here is a good focaccia recipe. Remember how I said I liked meatballs? Here’s a  meatball recipe from Budget Bytes.  I highly recommend you make this right away: My favorite Tuscan fries from Nigella. Or maybe you want a nice antipesto plate of roasted veg.

Ok that was nice, now back to meatballs, with Martha’s Spaghetti and Meatballs and Melissa Clark’s pantry meatballs

Low cost/pantry/cucina povera: Speaking of Melissa Clark’s pantry meals — all of which I am a fan of — here are a few more. For instance this is a nice and easy meal of root vegetables paired with chickpeas and yogurt. Or this sausage and veg soup …sounds great. How about putting this savory loaf packed with cheese and olives to go with it? Sounds just right. Thanks, Melissa.

Meanwhile if you are in the mood to make loafs, I recommend these three meatloafs from Martha that are more French in style than American. There is Spicy Butternut Squash Meatloaf and also this Spanish-Style Meatloaf. Yum!

Still in the mood for more ways to eat cheap and healthy and lazy? Then read this.

Meat recipes:  Speaking of eating lazy, I love cutlets for that. Here is Smitten Kitchen with a good chicken cutlet recipe. If you fancy pork, read this:
The Pork Chop Recipe That Finally Got Me on the Pork Chop Train. If you prefer beef instead, here’s a  flank steak recipe with Bloody Mary Tomato salad (wow) and here’s a recipe for grilled rib eye with shishito pepper salsa.

Soups, sauces and salad recipes: no particular reason for this grouping, I just like it. Here’s a nice fennel and citrus salad.  Here’s something you can have for days: Just-Keeps-Getting-Better Lentil Salad .

Need some sauces? Here’s two: a nice green sauce and a good veloute sauce.

We have a range of soups as well: from cucumber to French Onion with Comte. Here’s a general recipe to make any purred soup in 5 Steps. Last but not least:  If You Have Kimchi You’re Steps Away From This Soup. So sez Melissa Clark’s pantry.

Other recipes: Here’s a nice noodle dish to try. Here’s some paleo recipes that looked promising: for fans of paleo. Did we forget drinks? Ok. Here’s a good recipe that is a base for all your summertime cocktails: homemade sour mix. Get to work on your braising. I haven’t tried this but if it works it will be fantastic: making caramelized onions in the oven.

Non-recipe related: Wow. That’s a lot of recipes! Here’s some other things that seemed interesting. For example, here’s three interesting stories on French chefs dealing with the challenge of Michelin ratings: Un! Deux!Trois! Here’s a good story on space food, while here is another one on the economics of casseroles.This guy missed airline meals so much he makes them at home. Ok…sure. For fans of this chef, here’s a good  write up on Eric Ripert’s latest cookbook on Vegetables. This was fascinating: Costco Builds Nebraska Supply Chain For Its $5 Rotisserie Chickens. I loved this piece on Caroline Fidanza, the chef who used to run the beloved Saltie’s in Brooklyn. Epic sandwiches! How about this great all purpose pan? Print this of if you bake: Converting cake recipes to different pans Finally, for fans of hot sauce, here is A hot sauce guide with tips for how to use 8 common styles. 

Wow. That’s a ton of food links! I hope you found some useful. Happy cooking!

(Image of Caroline Fidanza focaccia sandwich via TASTE.)

Some food for thought on a Saturday


Often I find links that are interesting but I don’t have anything especially interesting to say about them, other than I thought they were worthwhile reading.  Here are 30 of them for this month. As the image says, you may get lots of your own ideas from reading the ideas of others:

  1. Philosophy by Susan Rigetti
  2. Moral grandstanding in public discourse: Status-seeking motives as a potential explanatory mechanism in predicting conflic
  3. The Five Types of Personal Boundaries (and How to Set Them)
  4. One simple way to build someone’sconfidence: Ask for their advice
  5. Are We Trading Our Happiness for Modern Comforts?
  6. The Stoic Antidote to Frustration: Marcus Aurelius on How to Keep Your Mental Composure and Emotional Equanimity When People Let You Down
  7. Imagination is the sixth sense. Be careful how you use it
  8. Jeff Bezos Faces Down The Overview EffectIn Space
  9. Joseph Landry sentenced to seven years in jail for death of Dartmouth friend in 2018
  10. We‚are Learning the Wrong Lessons From the World’s Happiest Countries
  11. Even if You Think Discussing Aliens Is Ridiculous Just Hear Me Out
  12. Years You Have Left to Live Probably
  13. Desire paths: the illicit trails that defy the urban planners
  14. Other People’s Despair – Mending the Social Fabric Won’t Fix the Suicide Crisis
  15. Stop Doomscrolling and Grab a Game Controller Instead
  16. How to Separate Your Identity From Your Behavior (and Why You Should)
  17. The Blackfoot Wisdom that Inspired Maslow’sHierarchy
  18. I Miss My Bar – Recreate Your Favorite Bar’s Atmosphere
  19. At Talkspace Start-Up Culture Collides With Mental Health Concerns
  20. Emotional labor
  21. Biblical and Greek Ambivalence Towards Child Sacrifice – TheTorah.com
  22. Cream of the Crop: 8 Architecture Firms Leading the Urban Farming Revolution
  23. The necessity of Kripke
  24. Why Emotionally Intelligent People Embrace the 2-Way Door Rule to Make Better Faster Decisions
  25. How does Google’s monopoly hurt you? Try these searches.
  26. Effective altruism is logical but too unnatural to catch on
  27. Darkness is the absence of recognition
  28. A Checklist Before Dying
  29. Empires pandemics and the economic future of the West
  30. The Bus Ticket Theory of Genius

(Photo by CJ Dayrit on Unsplash)

On wine: what you should expect at each price point


I recently read this and I thought it was a great examination of what you should expect at each price point of wine: How to find the sweet spot in the cost of a bottle of wine | The Hub. It’s really aimed at Canadians, but it can apply elsewhere.

I am still a fan of cheap wine, but I find myself drinking closer to the $20 price point now. In Ontario at least, that seems to be the price at which wines are consistently good. There’s nothing wrong with buying wine at all sorts of price points. You should just know what to expect.

Speaking of cheaper wine, this is worth a read: The Science Behind Your Cheap Wine

(Photo by Scott Warman on Unsplash )

What I find interesting in general, Julyish, 2021


Often I find links that are interesting but I don’t know what to do with. Here are some for this month. I should have posted them in July but hey, it’s the thought that counts 🙂

  1. Enjoy the restored Night Watch but don’t ignore the machine behind the Rembrandt 
  2. Starting an Online Store as a Digital Nomad
  3. User Experience Matters: What Entrepreneurs Can Learn From “Objectified”
  4. The Infinite Loop of Supply Chains
  5. How to Not Go Broke the Next Time You Move
  6. Breaking Point: How Mark Zuckerberg and Tim Cook Became Foes
  7. Our Favorite Cheap Earbuds Are an Unbelievable $16 Right Now
  8. Tony Mecia’s Charlotte Ledger newsletter on pace for $175 000 in annual revenue
  9. Best budgeting software of 2021
  10. Nearly 60% of small charities have zero plans to digitally transform says CanadaHelps survey
  11. Millions of Canadians working from home could qualify for new tax deduction
  12. Simplest Stool
  13. The Rasterbator
  14. Help Your Garden Thrive By Pairing These Plants
  15. Behold: *All* the Stuff I Wish I’d Known Before Starting an Etsy Business
  16. 7014
  17. The Dreyfus Affair (1899) A Silent Film Review
  18. The Iconography of the Paris Commune 150 Years Later
  19. The Problem With History Classes
  20. Centuries-Old Paintings Help Researchers Track Food Evolution
  21. CONVERTING VHS TO A DIGITAL FILE // MAC & PC // CHEAP & EASY!!
  22. How and Why to do a Life Audit
  23. Why People Are So Awful Online
  24. The land was worth millions. A Big Ag corporation sold it to Sonny Perdue’s company for $250 000.
  25. Northern Ireland Is Coming to an End
  26. From Dominion Day to Canada Day there’s a long history of ambivalence
  27. How Amazon Bullies Manipulates and Lies to Reporters
  28. What the city and police say about the crackdown on the homeless in Torono parks seems at odds with reality. Why should we trust them?
  29. On the Occasion of Our 10-year Legal Marriage Anniversary
  30. John Tory shares strong feelings about protesters at Toronto encampment evictions
  31. Juul agrees to pay North Carolina $40 million to settle vaping accusations
  32. Newly detailed nerve links between brain and other organs shape thoughts memories and feelings
  33. lofi.cafe – lofi music

Thank you for reading this far. I don’t know if anyone reads most of my posts, especially these general ones,  but I keep at it regardless.

(Top Photo by Hello I’m Nik on Unsplash . Bottom Photo by Courtney Hedger on Unsplash)

Looking to get fit in the pandemic? Here are 37 great links to help you with that

I’ve been struggling to get back in some form of better shape during the pandemic. During that time, I have been researching diets, fitness routines, meditation routines, health links, wellness articles…you name it. Here are some of the good links I have found that are worthwhile:

  1. 7-Day Diet Meal Plan to Lose Weight: 1 500 Calories
  2. Jumping Rope is an Unbeatable Cardio Workouts if You Do It Correctly
  3. Home gyms that complement your IKEA furniture and ensure you fulfil your fitness goals: Part 3
  4. Japanese Fasting Study Reveals Complex Metabolic Changes in the Human Body
  5. More 1500 calorie meals
  6. A Full-Body Workout for Beginners That Hits All Your Major Muscles
  7. When This Mother of Two Started Running She Realized It Was the Self-Care She Never Had
  8. If You Hate Meditating Try These Alternatives
  9. When you burn fat where does it actually go?
  10. Running From the Pain
  11. New Balance Fresh Foam 1080v11 Running Shoes / $150 (nice)
  12. How Long It Takes to Start Enjoying Exercise According to Reddit
  13. Why Fasting Works
  14. The Damaging Double Standard Behind Intermittent Fasting
  15. I’m Often Wide Awake at 3 A.M. How Do I Get Back to Sleep?
  16. Do We Really Need to Take 10 000 Steps a Day for Our Health?
  17. Navigating My Son’s A.D.H.D. Made Me Realize I Had It Too
  18. A 2 000-Calorie Diet: Food Lists and Meal Plan
  19. 25 Ways to Practice Self-Care
  20. How to Build Resilience in Midlife
  21. 6 Ways to Take Care of Yourself When People Disappoint You
  22. Your 3-Day Heart-Healthy Meal Plan: 1 500 Calories
  23. How exercise helps with stress
  24. The benefits of moderate exercise
  25. Exercise snacks
  26. On the 5BX plan
  27. Good exercises to burn calories
  28. On the zen of weightlifting
  29. Jogging and the brain
  30. On marathons
  31. Running sub 3 marathons
  32. Marathon times
  33. How walking in place can help
  34. How long it takes to put on muscle
  35. A chart to help you get fit in 15 days
  36. How to start strength training
  37. On learning to like running

(Photo by Alex McCarthy on Unsplash )

It’s Monday. You’re todo list isn’t working for you. Here’s what you should consider


It’s Monday. You are trying to plan your day, your week, and you are struggling. It may just be you, but chances are it is the act of writing out your todo list. To see what I mean, read this excellent piece by my online friend and great writer, Clive Thompson. Everyone struggles with todo lists and the tools used to work with them. I know I do. I have used many such tools over time and have never landed on the perfect one.

So here’s what I recommend:

  1. First, acknowledge todolist tools are blunt instruments at best. Don’t try too hard to do everything with one tool. Do the best you can.
  2. Second, acknowledge that it is easy to overwhelm todo list tools with data. When you do, you end up spending more time working with the tool then getting things done. Try to hold back.
  3. Third, understand the level of granularity to require. Start high level on your todo lists and then drill down only if you have to.
  4. Finally, separate planning and reporting from todo lists. Your plans should drive your todo lists. Focus on more on achieving your plans and your goals and less on your tasks. Then when you are done, report what is necessary.

Todo list tools are good to help you achieve your tasks. But focus less on your tasks and tools and more on what you are trying to achieve.

(Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash )

Trite, simple advice to make you happier at home

butternknife with marmalade

Often times advice is overlooked because it is trite or simple. Such advice is like a butterknife: of limited use but still useful.

We can use all the tools we can to be happier. Even those that cut like butterknives. Here’s 10 of them right here: 10 simple things to make you happier at home

Whatever can help you cut through life’s sadness is worthwhile, I think.

(Photo by Calum Lewis on Unsplash )

What I found interesting in tech, July 2021

Here’s 59 links (!) of things I have found interesting in tech in the last while.

It ‘s heavily skewed towards Kubernetes because that’s mostly what I have been involved with. Some stuff on Helm, since I was working on a tricky situation with Helm charts. There’s some docker and Open Shift of course, since it’s related. There’s a few general pieces on cloud. And finally at the end there’s links to a bunch of worthwhile repos.

Almost all of these links are self explanatory. The ones that aren’t…well…few if anyone but me reads these posts anyway. 🙂 Just treat it like a collection of potentially good resources.

Raspberry Pi / Pico: I have been interested in doing work with the Raspberry Pi Pico, so here are some links I liked:
Raspberry Pi Pico: Programming with the Affordable Microcontroller and Getting started with Raspberry Pi Pico – Control LED brightness with PWM | Raspberry Pi Projects and How to Use an OLED Display With Raspberry Pi Pico | Tom’s Hardware.

I am interested in getting bluetooth working with my Raspberry Pi Pico, so I am reading things like Bluetooth serial communication with Mac, JY-MCU Bluetooth and Arduino | Cy-View and How to: Setup a bluetooth connection between Arduino and a PC/Mac | ./notes and Cheap BlueTooth Buttons and Linux – Terence Eden’s Blog

Not a Pico, but I am also interested in doing work with the ATTTiny 85 chip, so I saved this: How to Program an ATtiny 85 Digispark : 8 Steps – Instructables

Here’s two projects I am interested in. Using a Pico to press a key on the Mac using bluetooth: How to run an AppleScript with a keyboard shortcut on macOS while here is a fun project – Making an Email-Powered E-Paper Picture Frame–

Here’s some cool MIDI projects with a Pico: this one, NEW GUIDE: Modal MIDI Keyboard @adafruit @johnedgarpark #adafruit #midi « Adafruit Industries – Makers, hackers, artists, designers and engineers, this Code the Modal MIDI Controller | Modal MIDI Keyboard | Adafruit Learning System, and this Build smart, custom mechanical keyboards for MIDI – or really tiny Ableton Live control – CDM Create Digital Music

Kubernetes/OpenShift / Containers: I’ve been doing more and more work on K8S and OpenShift and found these useful…

Cloud: some advanced cloud knowledge here:

Software Development: here’s some random dev links:

 

 

General: finally here are some interesting links on IT in general:

(Image: via NYT piece on mesh)

July, 2021 pandemic highlights and ramblings (a newsletter, in blog form)

Happy midsummer to you. We are halfway through the summer of 2021 which also means it’s time for my latest blog newsletter.

Pandemic: For some time now, as vaccination was on the rise, the underlying story of the pandemic was “this will soon be over”. Masks were coming off. Indoor dining was on coming back. Travel restrictions were easing.

Now the Delta variant has taken over the story and masks are going back on and cases are on the rise. More on that here. I suspect that for at least the time being, we are still going to be struggling with COVID-19 in its many forms/variants.

Some places are trying to just act like it isn’t happening. For example, Tennessee abandoned vaccine outreach to minors and not just for COVID-19. That bout of madness lasted only a bit of time before the wise folks of that state reversed things. But like the pandemic, that madness is going around. For example,  Alberta is going to try a similar route, ending COVID rules.

Here’s the problem with this, in my opinion: unlike poverty, politicians can’t ignore COVID. If you try and do so, cases rise, hospitals fill up, more people die. People get upset and promise to vote you out. There’s no getting around it. The only way politicians win in that case is when people ignore them and do the right thing. Even then, their poor judgment is going to hurt them come election time.

As for other provinces,  Ontario  is trying to open as fast as it can, but it has a good plan and it seems to be sticking to it. However, daily cases were in the 150/day range and have creeped up to over 200. The plan may not hold.

I’m still hoping Canada is on the way to post-pandemic status. Based on our vaccine rates, it’s possible. But who knows. The pandemic humbles us all.

In other pandemic stories, it’s important to acknowledge that all tragedy did not occur directly because of the disease. In Ontario, more young people died from effects of lockdown than of COVID itself. That story is a good reminder that making choices in a pandemic are never straightforward. The choice of lockdown, while benefiting many, harmed others.

The New York Times has had many a good piece on how the pandemic has affected us. Here’s another: The Year of Purchasing and Purging

Finally, many of you have been forced to work at home during the pandemic. Here’s a silver lining: Introducing a simplified process for claiming the home office expenses for Canadians working from home due to the COVID-19 pandemic

Non-pandemic things :

 Olympics: It is crazy that the Olympics are going on during the pandemic. There is talk that COVID cases count spike as a result. We will see. As for the Olympics themselves, people are tuning them out. I am not surprised. I know why they weren’t cancelled altogher — a lot of money is at stake — but they should have been.

NFTs: Not much to say here. The fact that Coke is getting into the NFT game tells me that either they are becoming more mainstream or they are petering out.

US: In the US we have a tale of two presidents. The former president continues to be in hot water. First off, it looks like he will be forced to turn over tax records. As well, his actions during the attempted coup of January 6th are getting more scrutiny. Good.

Meanwhile this is what amounts to a Biden controversy: people are upset about his choices of ambassadors. That aside, Biden has a good chance that Congress is going to pass his bipartisan Infrastructure bill. That will be a big win for him.

Another big plus for his presidency is that poverty dropped considerably as a result of poverty aid programs. It’s a reminder that poverty and homelessness are a choice we make.

Finally there was the billionaire space race. I wrote about it here.

Ransomware: Continues to be a problem everywhere including Canada. It looks like Biden has expressed his unhappiness with things to Putin. I am not sure if this is a result of that conversation, but some of the people responsible for ransomware suddenly disappeared.

Lastly thanks for reading this! I appreciate it. Go out and enjoy the summer days while you can.

(Photo by Chris Galbraith on Unsplash)

Two recent pieces on Basquiat

Here on this blog, I like to post anything I can about my favorite artists, and Basquiat is one of my most favorite. Here’s two recent pieces on him:

  1. How Basquiat and Street Artists Left Their Mark on Hip-Hop Culture – The New York Times
  2. Basquiat’s Painting on an Apartment Door Acquired by Dallas Museum of Art

The last one has this incredible photo in it:

Basquiat with two rich women

First off, the photo is titled: Jean-Michel Basquiat at the opening of Primitivism in 20th Century Art, 1985 (photo by Andy Hanson). I can’t believe that any museum or gallery categorized his work as Primitivism. (Ok, I can.) And then that photo. Basquiat looking cool and sophisticated. The women…well…something else. Anyway….good links. Check them out.

Friday night cocktail: a Lambrusco Spritz

Lambrusco Spritz

While we on this blog love a good glass of cremant anytime, in the summertime we want easy drinking cocktail and mixes like spritzes. Italian liquors are great for these. While you may be happy to chug back of sip Aperol spritzes all weekend, we’d like to recommend something different: the Lambrusco Spritz. There is much to recommend for the Lambrusco Spritz. For one, you can drink Lambrusco as a spritz or straight up. Two, it goes great with snacky food. As the Times shows:

 Lambrusco pairs seamlessly with the rich foods of Emilia-Romagna, such as Parmigiano-Reggiano, cured meats and gnocco fritto, meaning that a daytime bottle can easily linger past sunset. “A lot of wines that you might apéro with, you might not want with food,” Ms. Davis said. “The great thing about Lambrusco is that you can drink it all day, and then you can drink it all night.”

Perfect, right? So grab yourself a few bottles and go Day Drinking, Italian Style.

(Image: link to NYTimes article)

Two good pieces for those of us getting older (with some additional thoughts from me).

People runningHere’s two worthwhile pieces on growing old:

This, Fighting against ageism and this, Aging is inevitable, so why not do it joyfully? Here’s how.

How we see growing old is a cultural thing. When I first went to pick out a photo, I decided on the first one of the man running. Because I am a product of my culture, as they say. I see being fit and young and productive as valuable.  Especially in our culture, being able to produce is highly valued. That’s why ageism occurs. If you show signs of age, people assume you will produce less. So your value decreases to them.

Then I saw the picture below. In other cultures, being able to sit and converse with your friends is valuable. These people are not being productive. They are not trying to look young. They are being social. They are being human.

Old people talking

I think we have problems in our society because for many the chief purpose of humans is to produce, to be productive. As long as that is true, we will have problems with ageism. True, we need times of our life to be productive, but we also need times for growth, times for rest and reflection. To combine all those times effectively is to live a good life. A life where all humans at all times of their lives are valued.

(First Photo by Lisa Wall on Unsplash. Second Photo by Cristina Gottardi on Unsplash )